Thom Rainer picks up on this in his article ‘The importance of launching new groups‘. Not only is launching new groups a way of building in capacity for more people to get connected, it’s a means of growing the church:

“The churches working hard to launch new small groups and Sunday School classes on a regular basis were continually connecting new people and building believers who were passionate about what the Lord was doing through His Church. Thus, they were growing.”

That’s been part of our DNA at Vine Church since when we started 2.5 years ago. I think it’s a great way to grow a church, add capacity and reach out to more people is to start new groups. But the harvest is plentiful and the workers are few, so we need to keep asking more of the harvest, that the Lord would send more workers into the field.

So as you want to start more groups you need to keep adding more leaders, venues as well as change the culture of the group. It’s not about stability